Chef Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga announcing the name of the new Imperial era |
But which role plays the Japanese emperor nowadays? And how it has changed during the Japanese history?
In the following, I'm going to answer these questions as well as going to show after what the Japanese history's periods has been named.
Ieyasu Tokugawa, one of the three country unifiers and the founder of the last shōgunate |
In other words, from 1868 to 1946, the entire reign force was centralized to the emperor alone, due to the Meiji restoration.
General Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964), that person who has nerved the Japanese emperor |
The one who has really the political power to decide is the prime minister who is the head of government.
In plain text, since 1946, Japan hasn't formally a head of state anymore.
Hirohito (the emperor in the Shōwa period from 1926 to 1989) Akihito (the emperor in the Heisei period 1989 to 2019) Naruhito (the emperor in the Reiwa period since 1st May 2019) |
- The prehistoric periods have been named after archaeological discoveries
- The periods of the Anquity, Middles Ages and the Pre-modern era have been named after the seat of government. Thus, the capital had been changed during the history. By the way, Heian is today's Kyoto and Edo is today's Tokyo
- Since the Modern era, the periods has been named after “regnal years”, i.e. the period names are coextensive with the respective emperor’s terms. During the Meiji period (1868-1912), Edo has been renamed in Tokyo and since then, it has been the capital of Japan.
As already emtioned, remarkable about the last year's emperor throne's succession was the fact being the first time since 1817 doing so by abdication. Anyways, on 2019/05/01, the Reiwa period has begun and supersede the Heisei period (1989-2019).
Now, I ask you: Do you like the new rubric "cultural studies"? Do you have any wishes for possible topic on which I could attend? Don't hesitate writing your wishes in the comment section below.